Not Everybody Needs A Twitter Account

…or, to borrow a quote from my Student Assistant…

Not everybody needs to know about the chicken sandwich you had for lunch.

Recently, a group came to me asking for help in setting up a Twitter account for their office. This particular group employed one person who was somewhat familiar with the concepts behind Twitter, but was not an avid user. They were unsure about what content they could post and, based on their line of work, there are lots of things they could post which would cause serious legal and ethical dilemmas. Finally, they didn’t have a strategy that was going to win them followers and make the account worth having all by themselves.

So, to recap:

• Unskilled in the use of social media
• No content strategy, and no one to generate that content
• Serious legal concerns if proper measures aren’t taken to coordinate what content can and can’t go up
• No plan to encourage people to follow them and make the account a success

A skill shortage can be addressed, and kudos to this particular group for reaching out and admitting that it was a problem. But those other three bullet points are serious issues. Ask yourself these questions when determining “Do I or my business need a social media account?”

1. Why do we need a social media account? Are we providing a service that is merely duplicating our existing efforts? (Remember, using Twitter exclusively to plug use of your phone number, email address, or website somewhat defeats the purpose!)
2. What will be posted to the account? (Don’t be afraid to share outside content to help give the account a boost!)
3. Who will supply the content?
4. Who will post it? How much do they know about social media? Does this person have extra time to perform this duty?
5. How often will they be posting?
6. When will the account be monitored and updated?
7. What are the risks I am/we are exposing myself/ourselves to with this account?
8. How can I/we make this account a successful tool to promote myself/my business? What are the metrics for our success?

Do these all sound like basic questions? I hope so! But too often, people and businesses treat social media as a dumping ground, or as a requirement in this digital age, and they believe it’s as simple as “If we use social media, our business will improve.” Instead, treat it like a piece of software that requires time, effort, and training, and you can get the most out of it without harming your brand or leaving a big, empty Twitter handle in your wake that looks bad on your business.

-PG